The present disclosure generally relates to food technologies. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a heat exchange apparatus, and in an embodiment, an, aseptic cooler having an open chamber configuration that allows for maintaining a level of cooling media in the aseptic cooler, while preventing the cooling media from pressurizing same.
Heat exchangers and aseptic coolers are known in the food industry and the common design for aseptic coolers is known as a “feed and bleed” system, which works by recirculating cooling media through the heat exchanger shell for heat transfer. The recirculating cooling media may be combined with fresh cooling media and pumped back to the heat exchanger shell by a circulation pump where it is introduced into the heat exchanger shell, which is typically flooded with cooling media. As such, the continuous and fast flow rate of cooling media into and through the heat exchanger shell pressurizes the chamber during recirculation. This pressurization is undesirable for aseptic food processing because higher pressure on the shell-side of the heat exchanger could force cooling media into the lower pressure tube-side of the heat exchanger in the presence of a pinhole or other failure, causing contamination of the food product contained therein.